Gingrich gives up on W.H., not on lunar base

5/2/12 6:31 AM EDT

In an exit interview with USA Today, the former House speaker says we won't have Newt Gingrich to kick around anymore, at least on the presidential level:

Gingrich said he doubts he'll ever make another bid for president.

"I'm already 68 years old," he said. "I believe Mitt Romney will become president. I believe he will do well enough to be re-elected, and I do not think in 2020 I'll be a plausible candidate."

That doesn't directly answer the question of whether he'd run for president again in 2016 in the event that Romney loses, but there are big enough problems with that idea on its own, and Gingrich doesn't sound determined to give this another shot.

Gingrich, who told the paper he expects Mitt Romney and the RNC to help him handle his campaign debt, also took one more shot at the haters of his Moon-base plan:

He said he had been surprised by the "irresponsible and cynical reaction to my proposals for space" by "the elites." The emotional reaction of Americans to recent retirement flights of the space shuttle proves "the country still has a romantic desire to do great things," he said.